Fujian rolls out plan to boost innovation-driven development

Fujian province has recently rolled out several measures to further promote innovation-driven development, according to a press conference held by the provincial Department of Science and Technology on Oct 15. Fujian will increase funding to bring in large research and development institutes, providing greater support for the leading enterprises in the scientific and technological industry to implement major national science and technology projects and national engineering research.

Meanwhile, Fujian will support the leading enterprises in building high-tech research and development centers in the province. It also aims to build high-tech laboratories of energy resources, marine science, network information, advanced manufacturing, medical health and other fields to attract high-end innovative talents from home and abroad.

Enterprises with over 5 percent of its prime operating revenue invested in high-quality research and development will be provided with more incentives. The enterprise's annual output value and tax revenue must also exceed 50 million yuan ($7.2 million) and 10 million yuan ($1.4 million) respectively. To boost the development of the new generation of artificial intelligence, Fujian will set up major science and technology projects in major sectors as the Internet of Things, machine vision, intelligent robots, intelligent chip and intelligent manufacturing.

Fujian will invest 200 million yuan annually from 2019 to 2021 to set up special compensation funds to provide risk compensation and credit support to medium small and micro-sized enterprises in the scientific and technological industry.

Fujian is also considering bringing the development of a self-dependent innovation demonstration area in Fuzhou, Xiamen and Quanzhou into the local government's performance appraisal.

The province now has 3,054 high-tech enterprises and the added value of the high-tech industry has increased by 11.9 percent annually in the past 5 years.